In the end, the gold went to the movie with the men in Army green, not the avatars in blue. "The Hurt Locker" clung to its momentum long enough to be named best picture at last night's 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood.

It emerged from a field of 10 nominees, the most crowded race since "Casablanca" won more than six decades ago. If that weren't enough history for one night, Kathryn Bigelow, 58, became the first woman to win the top directing prize for "Hurt Locker," her tension-soaked drama about bomb techs in 2004 Baghdad.

"Well, the time has come," presenter Barbra Streisand said before announcing Ms. Bigelow's name.

"This really is, there's no other way to describe it, it's the moment of a lifetime," Ms. Bigelow confirmed, thanking writer Mark Boal for risking his life for the words on the page.

The movie's path to the Kodak Theatre stage had been littered with land mines. In recent weeks, a "Hurt Locker" producer who engaged in illegal campaign tactics was banned from the ceremony, while veterans groused the movie is unrealistic and one sued, claiming it stole his life story and experience.

None of that mattered last night during a ceremony also honoring four first-time winners in the acting races: Jeff Bridges for "Crazy Heart," Sandra Bullock for "The Blind Side," Mo'Nique for "Precious" and Christoph Waltz for "Inglourious Basterds."

Mr. Bridges represents the best of Hollywood: a second-generation actor who speaks warmly of his big brother and their late parents, a man married to the same woman since 1977, and a performer whose looks and talent have deepened with every sun-kissed line in his face.

And, as of last night, an Academy Award winner.

His turn as a broken-down, hard-living country singer brought his fifth Oscar nomination and first victory. In "Crazy Heart," Bad Blake is a former headliner who drives a beat-up '78 Suburban to gigs in beer joints and bowling alleys and totes his own amp.

"Thank you Academy members," he said, shaking the statuette. "Mom and Dad, look! ... Thank you mom and dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession," the bearded Bridges said, in one of the longer and loveliest speeches of the night.

Mr. Bridges was a latecomer to the actor race but once "Crazy Heart" opened, he roared to the top of the class. As standing ovations consistently have proven, the Dude from "The Big Lebowski" still abides.

Ms. Bullock has turned into Hollywood's version of Miss Congeniality this awards season, downplaying any chance she had of winning best actress, but doing just that.

In "The Blind Side," she plays a Memphis woman named Leigh Anne Tuohy who welcomed a homeless teen into her house and transformed his life -- and that of her family.

The 45-year-old traded her brunette locks for blond hair, hired a dialect coach and "hounded" Tuohy over pronunciations. She left 16-time nominee Meryl Streep in the dust or, technically, her Kodak Theatre seat.

She addressed each of her fellow nominees and singled them out for compliments, sometimes comic. "I would like to thank this film for what it was about for me -- the moms who take care of the babies no matter where they come from," she said, pausing to remember her own late mother.

Writer Michael Lewis, whose nonfiction book inspired the heartwarming movie, calls Mrs. Tuohy "an extreme, and seemingly combustible, mixture of tenderness and willfulness." Ms. Bullock is a successful mixture of romcom queen and dramatic actress, not to mention a good sport who picked up her Razzie for worst actress in "All About Steve" on Saturday night.

Earlier in the night, actors who played villains ruled and reigned as Mo'Nique and Mr. Waltz continued their winning streaks and picked up Oscars for their groaning awards shelves.

When Oprah Winfrey interviewed Mo'Nique in November, she asked the obvious question: "Hey, girl, what you wearing to the Oscars?" The unspoken half of that inquiry was "... when you win as best supporting actress."

And that's exactly what the "Precious" star did last night, clad in a royal blue gown, her hair piled high. Mo'Nique thanked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences "for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics."

The comedian and talk-show host had refused to take the traditional route by attending every awards ceremony, cocktail party and soiree and grabbing any chance to dish on TV. She went to some high-profile events but suggested her work should speak for itself.

"I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel [supporting actress winner for 'Gone With the Wind'] for enduring all that she had to, so that I would not have to," Mo'Nique said. "Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey, because you touched it, the whole world saw it."

Mo'Nique, who was molested by an older brother when she was a child, plays a monstrous, poisonously abusive mother in "Precious." Off screen, she is a wife and mother of three, including 4-year-old twin boys.

After paying tribute to her BET and "Precious" families, Mo'Nique singled out husband Sidney Hicks "for showing me that sometimes you have to forgo doing what's popular in order to do what's right. And baby, you were so right."

In another foregone conclusion, Mr. Waltz won the supporting actor Oscar for his chilling, cunning and linguistically facile Nazi colonel in "Inglourious Basterds."

Just as director Quentin Tarantino rewrote World War II history to allow the Nazis to meet the fate they deserved, he allowed Mr. Waltz to become a sure thing at awards ceremony after awards ceremony.

Mr. Waltz accepted his statuette from last year's supporting actress Penelope Cruz and said, "I always wanted to discover some new continent and I thought I had to go this way and then I was introduced to Quentin Tarantino, who was putting together an expedition," headed in the opposite direction.

"Everybody helped me find a place," he said, managing to work a string of key names into his thank you. "With his unorthodox methods of navigation, this fearless explorer took this ship across and brought it in with flying colors. That's why I'm here."

Mr. Waltz, an Austrian-born Londoner with almost 30 years of movie, TV and stage credits, made Mr. Tarantino's trademark dialogue snap, crackle and pop in German, French, English and Italian, no less. At age 53, he hit his stride and "uber-bingo," with Oscar and a kiss from Ms. Cruz, resplendent in red.

Mr. Tarantino has a way with words but he lost the original screenplay prize to Mr. Boal, who wrote "The Hurt Locker."

"You honor me and humble me with this, more than you know. I was a reporter, back from Iraq, with the idea for a story about these men on the front lines of an unpopular war," he said. Mr. Boal dedicated the Oscar to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, those wounded and killed and his father, who died a month ago.

The companion statuette, for adapted screenplay, went to Geoffrey Fletcher for "Precious," a surprise pick over the writers of "Up in the Air." He was near tears, as was "Precious" director Lee Daniels in the audience, while star Gabourey Sidibe applauded wildly.

Pixar's delightful "Up" floated to its expected win for best animated feature. "Boy, never did I dream that making a flip book out of my third-grade math book would lead to this," director Pete Docter said.

He called the movie an "oddball film" but said the heart of it came from his parents, children and wife, who could be seen wiping away tears.

Family also factored into the thank you from composer Michael Giacchino, who won the Oscar for the original score for "Up" and urged young people, "If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It's not a waste of time."

Aliquippa native Joe Letteri, part of the visual effects team for "Avatar," won his fourth Oscar last night. And one of these days, the presenters may learn how to pronounce his last name.

"Avatar's a film about learning to see the world in new ways, and for that extraordinary inspiration, I have to thank our director, James Cameron. Jim, it was an honor to work with you on this, it was amazing."

The former Beaver County resident, who now lives in New Zealand, didn't forget the audience that rocketed the movie to box-office records. "To everyone watching, thank you for the great appreciation you've shown for our film, and just remember, the world that we live in is just as amazing as the one we created for you."

In other honors: Argentina's "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" was named best foreign language film; "The Cove," an expose of dolphin slaughter in Japan, was crowned best documentary; "The Hurt Locker" also was singled out for film editing, sound editing and sound mixing; "Avatar" won for cinematography and art direction; and "The Young Victoria" for costume design;

The "Crazy Heart" theme "The Weary Kind" took the prize for original song; "Logorama," six years in the making, won for animated short; "Music by Prudence" for documentary short; "The New Tenants," for live action short; and "Star Trek" for makeup.

Fittingly, Ben Stiller was in "Avatar" blue face to present the makeup Oscar. He joked he should have worn his original "Star Trek" ears, signed by Leonard Nimoy, but that would have been "too nerdy" -- as he occasionally lapsed into the Na'vi language invented for the Cameron blockbuster.

The show opened not with a Billy Crystal-style tribute or Hugh Jackman production number but a gathering of the nominees for leading actress and actor. It allowed everyone to have a moment in the spotlight of the Kodak Theatre stage before Neil Patrick Harris appeared to sing and dance, as he had at the Tonys and Emmys.

This year, Oscar doubled the number of hosts to two -- Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, who dropped down from the ceiling -- and best picture nominees to 10.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hoped to welcome some blockbusters into the Oscar tent and it did. If the change had happened a year ago, for instance, "The Dark Knight" might have been nominated.

In addition to "The Hurt Locker" and "Avatar," each of which entered the night with nine nominations, the 10 best picture contenders included "Inglourious Basterds," "Up," "Up in the Air," "The Blind Side," "District 9," "An Education," "Precious" and "A Serious Man."

Even though Ms. Sidibe didn't win the best actress Oscar for "Precious," she was Cinderella on the red carpet. A college student and receptionist until hired to play the lead role, she said, "I'm a normal person in a fantasy world."

She likened it to "prom night for Hollywood."

Her mother, R&B/Gospel singer Alice Tan Ridley, who performs on New York's subway platforms, was with her. That was only fitting since she suggested her daughter audition for the adaptation of the novel by Sapphire.

A recap of the November presentation of awards to producer-executive John Calley, actress Lauren Bacall, producer-director Roger Corman, and cinematographer Gordon Willis was introduced by Queen Latifah.

In what also seemed like a bid for audience approval, the show paid tribute to the late director John Hughes, horror movies such as "Psycho" and "Rosemary's Baby" and spoofed "Paranormal Activity."

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